How much fluid weight do I gain between two dialysis sessions?

A great thinker had once said, “Never ask a lady her age and a dialysis patient his weight gain.”

I often get asked this question. Especially when people get to know that I dialyse every day. People who ask this are either nephrologists or people on dialysis themselves. You can’t blame them. Fluid weight gain is one of the biggest problems for people on dialysis and for people who treat people on dialysis.

My guess is people who dialyse thrice weekly and have no urine output would gain on an average two to three kgs between sessions. Unless they are very compliant - the ‘good boys’ in which case they would gain between 1 to 2 kgs or extremely non-compliant - the ‘bad boys’ in which case they would gain about 4-5 kgs.

I dialyse every day (pretty much) and I typically put on 3 kgs between sessions unless it is my day off, after which I am about 5-6 kgs above my dry weight. If I am travelling and have a day off, it could touch as much as 7 kgs.

There, I have said it. No, no, please don’t berate me. Don’t tell me about the dangers of the high gains. Don’t even ask me how I manage to put on so much.

I look at it this way. I take all the trouble of doing daily dialysis. I spend all the money on doing daily dialysis. I bear two big pricks on my arm almost every day of the week. All this for what? To deprive myself of the cola? To restrict myself from having the chilled aam panna? Why even bother with so much dialysis if I had to restrict myself so much?

Make no mistake, the biggest problem I have with kidney failure is the fluid restriction. If I did not have to restrict my fluid, I would not have any problems with kidney failure! Seriously!

So, now that I have answered the question, please don’t ask me this again and more importantly, those who deal with me on a daily basis, please, never ever, ever ever say something so ridiculous like “such a high weight gain” again.